Powerful Quake Deals Blow to Manufacturers in Hokkaido

September 6, 2018

Sapporo- A powerful earthquake that rocked Hokkaido in the small hours of Thursday and a subsequent major electricity outage greatly hampered the operations of manufacturers in the northernmost Japan prefecture.

A fire occurred at a plant of a unit of Mitsubishi Steel Mfg. Co. <5632> in Muroran after its cooling system came to a halt due to the blackout. The plant produces steel for construction machines and vehicles.

Although the fire was almost put out by firefighters, the restart of the plant is nowhere in sight, company officials said.

Operations stopped at a plant of Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. <5401> in Muroran after the temblor. The company is moving to resume part of the operations using an in-house power generation system after it confirmed that there was no major damage to the factory.

Production equipment automatically stopped at an oil refinery of Idemitsu Kosan Co. <5019> in Tomakomai.

There was no damage to equipment or injury to its workers at the refinery, but the company suspended shipments of gasoline and other oil products due to the blackout. It is not known when the major oil wholesaler will be able to restart production and shipments, officials said.

A unit of paper manufacturer Oji Holdings Corp. <3861> halted operations at its four major plants in Hokkaido because of the power failure.

It remains to be seen when the unit will be able to resume its operations, with many of its workers unable to come to work, officials said. Jiji Press